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Sunday, April 29, 2012

THE DARING BAKERS’ APRIL 2012 CHALLENGE: ARMENIAN NAZOOK

So I joined the Daring Kitchen this last month and I was excited to do this months challenge. It is a traditional Armenian pastry call Nazook. What an amazing little wonder these lovely pastries are! After they were in the oven my home was filled with the sweet smell of vanilla! So wonderful.

These pastries are not overwhelmingly sweet and have a light flaky texture, I am excited to try them again with different fillings!

For my first challenge I think I did pretty well. I am in love with these little pastries and the women at my ladies night out liked them as well.

4. Use your hands, or a
standing mixer with a paddle attachment, to work it into a dough.

5. If using a standing
mixer, switch to a dough hook. If making manually, continue to knead for

about 10 minutes, or until
the dough no longer sticks to the bowl or your hands. If it remains very
sticky, add some flour, a little at a time.

6. Cover the dough and
refrigerate for 3-5 hours, or overnight if you like.

Make the filling

7. Mix the flour, sugar,
and the softened butter in a medium bowl.

8. Add the vanilla
extract.

9. Mix the filling until
it looks like clumpy, damp sand. It should not take long. Set aside.

Make the Nazook

10. Preheat the oven to
moderate 350°F/175°C/gas mark 4.

11. Cut the refrigerated
dough into quarters.

12. Form one of the
quarters into a ball. Dust your working surface with a little flour.

13. Roll out the dough
into a large rectangle or oval. The dough should be thin, but not transparent.

14. Spread 1/4 of the
filling mixture across the rolled-out dough in an even layer. Try to spread the
filling as close as possible to the edges on the short sides, but keep some of
pastry dough uncovered (1 inch/2.5 cm) along the long edges.

15. From one of the long
sides, start slowly rolling the dough across. Be careful to make sure the
filling stays evenly distributed. Roll all the way across until you have a
long, thin loaf.

16. Pat down the loaf with
your palm and fingers so that it flattens out a bit (just a bit).

6 comments:

I have never seen pastries like these! They are so eye catching and I really do like that vanilla filling. There is so much chocolate out there it is nice to come along and find something tasty with vanilla. Thanks for sharing this Armenian cuisine, great job on the execution of these!

It makes about 40 depending how big you cut them. I did not freeze them I took them all to a pot luck! They are really so yummy and make your house smell wonderful! Give them a shot. So much fun! Thanks for visiting my blog!